


Fictober/Striketober Mash-up 2020

by CVH14



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Gen, Striketober | Cormoran Strike Fictober 2020, Troubled Blood Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26746705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CVH14/pseuds/CVH14
Summary: Collection of ficlets and drabbles using prompts from different lists (I know I'm cheating!) - Fictober and Striketober so far. Most will be set post-TB, so beware.I am not planning to post one a day as I couldn't do them all, and length will vary...
Relationships: Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike
Comments: 102
Kudos: 88
Collections: Striketober | Cormoran Strike Fictober 2020





	1. Fictober prompt no. 1 - “no, come back!”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE morning after…

‘No… Come back’, called Strike with a cheeky smile as Robin got out of bed the following morning.

‘It’s Friday! Pat will be here in about 40 minutes, and I don’t want her to see me coming down the stairs, instead of up’, she said and pulled her hand gently from his. 

‘Ugh, let’s send them all home for the day and get back to bed.’

‘We have this dinner tonight. After that we have all weekend’, she winked and walked out to his small kitchen. 

Strike heard the click of the kettle and shouted out, ‘Is this a promise?’


	2. Striketober prompt no. 2 - ‘Want some company?’

Strike woke up with the noise of the key on the door. He lifted his head and saw Robin taking her jacket off and hanging it up.

She saw him and smiled. ‘Morning! Don’t you look all warm and comfy?’

‘Sorry. Was that ok? Did Barclay take over alright?’ He sat up as she came into the bedroom.

‘Yeah, no problem. Got some good photos. Depending on Sam’s work this morning, we might be able to close this one and invoice the client.’ 

She yawned and stretched, then started stripping off. Strike grunted appreciatively, and she chuckled. ‘Want some company?’


	3. Fictober prompt no. 3 - “you did this?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something to fix that disastrous birthday gift. Clearly written before I read TB until the end… And I mess with the timeline a bit.

‘You did this?’, she asked, staring at her desk the following day.

‘Yeah’, he shrugged and turned back to his computer. She saw that his eyes flicked back up, though. ‘I told you I had something for you, didn’t I?

‘I thought it was just flowers… Last minute.’

‘Thanks for your trust’, he said curtly, but smirked nonetheless.

‘Cut it out. You forgot last year!’ Robin was also smiling.

‘Had to make up for it, then, didn’t I?’

‘You’ve more than made up. I love it.’ And she sat by their big, brand new desk, on her new office chair.


	4. Striketober prompt no. 9 - ‘I have to do this’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Posted early as I cannot bring myself to post this on Robin’s birthday… Sorry.

‘I have to do this’, said Robin, grabbing her bag by the front door. 

‘I don’t see why you do, actually. The prosecutor said they will read from your original evidence.’ He was trying to control his voice, but she could still hear the slight shake that gave his anger away. 

‘Strike, he could be out of jail in three months. What do you think he will do, then? I will be there, I will testify again if that stops him from getting an early release. Good behaviour, my arse.’ 

He grabbed his coat. ‘Fine, then I’m coming with you.’


	5. Fictober Prompt no. 23 - ‘Do we have to?’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fluffy service resumes!

Strike was breathing hard, his heart thumping and his forehead glued to hers. They were standing just outside The Ritz, and he was still giddy from their first kiss. 

‘That was...’

‘Yeah.’

‘Can I take you to dinner now?’

‘How about takeaway at your place instead?’

‘Ellacott!’ He let out a shocked laugh. ‘No, I am taking you next door. We have a reservation at The Wolseley.’

‘Do we have to?’, she pouted.

‘Yes, we do. I am doing this properly.’

‘Meh.’ She leaned against him. ‘And dessert...?’

‘Well… I bought you a cake. But it’s back home.’

‘Sounds perfect.’


	6. Striketober prompt no. 14 - ‘What are you smiling about?’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At The Wolseley. Happy birthday, Robin!

‘What are you smiling about?’

She looked up. ‘I’m happy. Wish we were brave enough sooner.’

‘Oh, really? How long are we talking about?’ He closed his menu. He was clearly teasing her, but she didn’t mind. She liked seeing him playful like that. His smile softened, and he held her hand. ‘I wish we were, too.’ 

She took a deep breath. ‘Longer than you think.’ Her face burned. 

‘Not longer than me, I bet.’

‘Really?’ 

‘Yep. Not saying how long, though. I’ll keep some of the mystery, thanks.’ He took a sip of his drink and winked at her.


	7. Striketober prompt no. 8 - ‘I’m scared’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one actually fits after chapter 1, but I hadn't thought of putting them in chronological order at first... It's a mess.

‘I’m scared’, she whispered to him as they approached the restaurant. 

‘How come?’

‘They will know straight away. We’re arriving together...’

‘So what? We work together. We’re coming straight from the office.’

‘They will know. Ilsa will know. Or Sam.’

‘Robin?’ He stopped on the pavement and she looked back at him. ‘Are you embarrassed by this? Us?’

‘Embarrassed?’ She smiled. ‘No. I just want to keep you to myself a bit longer. I don’t want to deal with teasing or pressure just yet. Is this ok?’

‘Yes’, he replied and kissed the top of her head. ‘This is perfect.’


	8. Striketober prompts no. 10 and 11 - ‘Give me five minutes’ and ‘Is everything okay?’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I see this leading to other conversations…

‘Give me five minutes’, Robin shouted from the bathroom. ‘The Tottenham? Or the Chinese?’

From the sofa, Strike rolled his eyes. ‘I was actually thinking somewhere nicer. It’s a Saturday night, after all.’

‘So?’ 

He saw a flash of her running naked from the bathroom to his bedroom, and stretched his neck. ‘Well… I thought we could go to a quieter place tonight.’

She immediately poked her head out of the bedroom and looked at him. ‘Is everything okay?’ 

He put his hands up. ‘Yes. All fine. We’re fine. But we got the letter today. We finally need to move.’


	9. Fictober prompt no 15 - ‘not interested, thank you’

‘You can go home, Robin. Thank you, but you must be tired.’ He was not looking at her, concentrating instead on the ice pack on his swollen knee.

‘I don’t want to go.’

‘I’ll be fine.’

‘Cormoran, please… I don’t want to go.’

‘Not interested in your pity, thank you’, he spat.

She gasped. ‘Pity has _nothing_ to do with it. How dare you? I’m your partner.’

‘And I’ll have to pay for it later, I know how it works.’

She was silent. Time stretched. Finally, she reached and touched his hair. ‘No, my love. I don’t think you do.’


	10. Fictober Prompt no. 19 - “I can’t do this anymore”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Placed sometime during the TB timeline… 
> 
> (I'm so late with this one!)

‘I can’t do this anymore, Ilsa. Please stop the matchmaking, we can both see what you’re doing.’ Robin took another sip and looked out the window. 

‘I’m not...’

‘He is not interested. I thought that after...’ Robin shook her head. ‘Doesn’t matter. He’s not interested. And I’m too old for this unrequited shit.’

‘Unrequited? So you ARE interested!’ Ilsa’s smile was huge. ‘I know him. This is not unrequited. Why do you think I am so relentless?’ 

Robin frowned and finished her wine. By the time she put her empty glass back down, a little smile played on her lips.


	11. Striketober prompt no. 28 ‘Don’t freak out’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is an old fic I wrote, posted and then deleted right afterwards in a panic. @Flanker27_UK and @BlueRobin were extremely kind about it, though, and persuaded me to post it again… So here it is, nicely buried under the Fictober avalanche before I panic again.

The office was a mess. Old files scattered on the floor, random pieces of stationery on little piles waiting to be sorted. They had reached the most annoying part of packing – the bulk was already in boxes, but there were the odd bits and pieces to be sorted and either thrown away, or even put in boxes to be labelled as miscellaneous, never to be touched again. They were having take away pizza for dinner and trying to make sense of what was left to pack, whilst Robin told him anecdotes of her previous weekend in Barcelona. 

She had gone with her flatmate Anna and her friends. Anna had been an actor with the Royal Shakespeare Company for many years until she left for a small part in a movie. The project was still in production, and she was waiting for her big break. She and Robin had gotten along very well since Robin moved in, as Ilsa had predicted. 

Cormoran had the opportunity to look at Robin while she talked. She looked amazing. Shorter hair, wide smile, a slight tan from the Spanish autumn sun. She was happier in the past few months than he had ever seen her, and had a busy social life now, always out with Anna and their friends. She declared soon after leaving Matthew that she would not go out with anyone until the divorce was settled. Not even a kiss until he signed the bloody papers, she said, or he would surely make her life more difficult. She was laughing when she said this at Nick and Ilsa’s, but the way she looked at him while saying it made him pause. He paused his life and waited. He did not want to date anyone either, afraid that if even a one night stand happened and Robin heard about it, their timing would be off again. 

But now… Robin and Matthew had finally signed the papers two weeks previously, and she announced she would celebrate it with the girls in Barcelona. And she kept mentioning this particular woman in their group, not only since the weekend, but for a couple of months now. They had been spending a lot of time together… 

‘Are you two dating?’ Shit. Had he said this out loud? 

‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to... None of my business’, he muttered, wishing the ground under him would open already. 

Robin looked at him. ‘You mean Priya? Am I dating Priya?’

He did not reply. She seemed to be thinking about her answer, her face serious. 

‘No’, she finally said. He barely had time to exhale in relief when she added, ‘I am in love with someone else.’ 

Strike had been punched so many times in his life, but this one hurt. He looked down at the box on which he had been balancing his plate of pizza. Was it someone new? Or even Matthew? Maybe she wasn’t over him yet? He didn’t know how long it passed until he felt her warm breath in his ear. 

‘It’s you, by the way.’ 

Before he could react, he felt the ends of her hair whipping the tip of his nose as she turned around and left for the kitchen. He watched her open and close all the kitchen cabinets, apparently checking if they had all been emptied. Her back was turned to him, and the only sounds were the clatter of the doors and the buzz in his ears. 

‘You don’t have to say anything’, she said, still not looking at him. She continued to empty drawers and cupboards of forgotten paper clips and old pens. ‘It is what it is. Nothing needs to change.’

Her matter-of-fact tone annoyed him. ‘Can you stop fiddling with this crap?’

She snapped her head up, eyes wide. 

He stood up and took a deep breath. Great start. ‘Sorry. I mean… What did you say?’

‘I said I am in love with you. Don’t freak out, it’s no big deal, business as usual.’ She returned to the bloody paper clips. 

‘Robin!’

She looked up again pointedly. ‘Yes, Cormoran?’

‘I am, too. I have been...for a long time. I didn’t have any hope before, and now...it is complicated.’

She lifted her chin. ‘It is only complicated if we make it so.’

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. ‘We work together. You just got divorced.’

‘Stop! Stop overthinking this. I’m sure we’ve both done a lot of that in the past few months.’ She walked around the box between them and stood in front of him. God, she was perfect. And she loved him back. But he was sure to mess this up, everything in his life was tainted. 

With her usual knack for reading his thoughts, she held his face with both her hands. ‘We’ve had enough drama already. Let’s not complicate this. We both deserve it.’ She pulled his head down so he could rest his forehead on hers. They stood like this for a while in silence, his eyes closed, until she got him out of his trance. ‘Cormoran?’

‘Yes?’

‘I am going to kiss you now.’


	12. Striketober prompt no. 29 - ‘You scared the shit out of me’

‘Robin?’

‘Hmm?’ She stopped kissing his neck and looked up. They had been snogging on his small sofa after a long week, the TV on with the usual Friday night comedy, the leftovers of their takeaway cooling on the coffee table. He just looked at her, his thumb caressing her cheek and his eyes roaming all over her face. ‘Cormoran? What is it?’

Her heart sank. She knew that look. He was scared. They had been together for a bit over a month now, and she hoped to have more time with him before… She wouldn’t cry or beg. She would be strong.

‘You know I am not the marrying kind, right?’ Here it comes. ‘I’ve never seen myself with the church and big wedding or anything.’

‘Been there, done that. Not for me, either’, she quipped, unable to just take it in silence. 

‘But this is it for me, Robin. This is it. I don’t want to ever be with anyone else.’

She stared, uncomprehending. ‘What…?’

‘I don’t have much to give you. I’m old, broken, but all I have is already yours.’ He moved his thumb again against her cheek. ‘If you have me...’

The sob she did not know she was holding came out uninvited, snot and all. ‘Oh, Cormoran!’ She hit him on the shoulder. ‘God.’

‘Robin...?’

‘You scared the shit out of me! I thought you were breaking up with me.’ She wiped her face with her sleeve. 

‘Why would I do that? I love you.’ 

‘I got that’, she giggled through her non-stopping sobs. ‘I love you, too.’ And she hugged him with all the strength she had, until he looked over his shoulder at her again. 

‘You understand I’m not proposing, right? This is a non-proposal. Means the same to me, though.’

She laughed. ‘Yes, I get that, too. This is fine by me.’ 

And then a thought crossed her mind. She let go of his neck, and sat back on her heels. 

‘Actually… Before I say that this is it for me, too, there is something I need... I won’t ever need a wedding, a diamond on my finger, a big house.’ She paused for effect, and he held his breath. ‘But I need you. The only promise I ever need from you is that you’ll look after yourself. Properly. I won’t nag, I won’t judge you, but I don’t want to run this agency without you. I don’t want to go through life without you. Do you understand?’

He opened his mouth, but didn’t seem to be able to speak. He swallowed hard, and nodded. 

‘Good.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is my paltry contribution to Striketober. Thank you to everyone who commented and left kudos - you've boosted a very anxious writer's confidence just in time for Nanowrimo! Much appreciated. 
> 
> Real life has caught up with me and I am very behind reading everyone's work, especially the multi-chapters and longer fics, so apologies if I haven't been able to repay your kind comments yet.


End file.
